In what was the biggest fight to be held in New Zealand since Alex Sua defeated Australian triple champion, Tony Mundine before, 13,000 fans at Carlaw park in March 1984, David Tua (107.8kg) demolished Shane Cameron (103.5kg) seven seconds into the second round. Referee Bruce McTavish hauled the Samoan off after he landed 14 unanswered blows on Cameron as he sagged against the ropes.
Cameron who calls himself the "Mountain Warrior", but was dubbed by Tua and his supporters "The Mountain Goat", started off well keeping his distance and circling to the left away from Tua's deadly left hook. But it wasn't the left hook that did the damage but an overhand right from David that dropped Shane two minutes into the first round. To be honest the writing looked to be on the wall then. Shane gamely got to his feet to be swamped by an avalanche of punches culminating in his hitting the deck for the second time. Tua followed up with two ineffectual punches while Cameron was on the canvas and it was at the this stage the referee halted proceedings in what is thought was a bid to indicate to the judges he was going to dock Tua a point, but the bell rang and the round ended in confusion. Gamely Cameron fronted for the second round but seven seconds later it was all over.
The fight took place in front of 7500 fans at Hamilton's Mystery Creek Events Centre and was for Shane's WBO Oriental and Asian Pacific heavyweight championship belt plus $500,000 each. All sorts of media and other varied know-alls claimed that they picked the result but as far as I know yours truly was the only one who went public BEFORE the bout and said on Radio Sport that Tua would win within three rounds!
The main support between former rugby league bad boy, John Hapoate (113.7kg) and New Zealand-born Colin Wilson (118.5kg) was an entertaining stoush while lit lasted. In the first round Hapoate threw Wilson to the canvas with a move that Chief Little Wolf would have been proud of. So the big Emerald-based coalminer came back with a low blow that caused referee, Lance Revill, to give Hapoate a minute's respite. In the third Hapoate dropped Wilson with a big right hand but southpaw Colin came back with hard left to drop "Hoppa" on the bell. At the start of the fourth Hapoate sensationally dropped Wilson with the first punch thrown. Again Colin got up and landed several punches to John's midriff and then another big left to the chin finished the Tongan off. The crowd loved it.
In what looked like developing into the fight of the night between Soulan Pownceby (78.6kg) and former Mauy Thai champion, Shane Chapman (79.2), came to a premature end following a clash of heads in the third round that left Chapman cut over the right eye. Summoned by the ref, Dr Dave Renata, rightly halted proceedings. Result a technical draw.
Australian cruiserwight champion, Daniel Amman (94.1kg) out-pointed Samoan, Lawrence Tuasa (94.2kg), over six threes, in an honest fight that was never exciting. Tuasa landed the flashier punches but Amman was steady, landing consistently with both hands.
In another bout that didn't reach great heights, Mensah Moyoyo (90.5kg) outpointed Yank, Max Alexander (92.2kg) also over six threes. Alexander didn't seem to very interested and lost a unanimous decision to the Ghanaian.
In the opening contest Steve Hermaia (68.8kg) started fast against Melbourne's Frank La Porto (69.4) scoring two knockdowns with overhand rights in the first round. Heremaia who was falsley billed as New Zealand light-middleweight champion looked to have the fight in the bag. But the tough Aussie came back to score with hard body shots to practically slow Heremaia to a walk in the third and fourth rounds. Steve called on his reserves to win the sixth and last round and take a narrow decision.
A new promoter on the block, hospitality entrepreneur, Mark Keddell, promoted a card at the ASB Stadium on August 28. Soulan Pownceby cruised to a victory over Samoan Togasilamai Letoa over 12 rounds for the vacant WBO Asia-Pacific light-heavyweight title.
In another bout on the card for the vacant WBO Pan-Africian cruiserweight crown between Mensah Moyoyo and elusive Algerian Mohammed Azzaoui ended controversially in the seventh round when Azzaoui coped a body shot well after referee Steve Marshall called break. Azzaoui fell to the canvas, although the blow wouldn't have dented butter and stayed down for the count and Marshall disqualified Mensah, who then took another shot at Mohammed when he got to his feet. There has been quite abit said about the disqualification with top local referee Lance Revill disagreeing with Marshall's decision. However NZPBA member Pat Leonard, also WBO Asia-Pacific secretary, agrees with Marshall. Mensah's manager Mark Kedell is considering an appeal.
